On Sunday 21 December 2003 18:09, Fran Fabrizio wrote:
>I am attempting to configure Amanda to run on our Qualstar SAIT
> changer, and I have a few questions...
>
>1. lt-amtapetype.  I couldn't find any tapetype info for SAIT tapes
> in the config file, mailing list archives or via googling so I
> resorted to running the amtapetype script.  I turned off hardware
> compression with the mt command, and then started the script.  That
> was 25 hours ago.  Soon after starting it reported that it took 39
> seconds to write 1024 MB.  So, 39 seconds/gig, 500gigs uncompressed
> capacity, should be right around 19500 seconds, or 5.4 hours.  I
> understand that what the script does is write to the entire tape
> twice.  So, 11 hours for the operation.  25 hours later, it's still
> going, and by the latest output, had only completed 182gigs thus
> far.  Am I doing something wrong?  The drive advertises
> 30MB/second, which I realize is an optimal number, but the initial
> output from amtapetype indicated 26MB/second (derived from the
> 1024MB/39seconds).  So that seemed like it was working correctly,
> only to find it now taking so long.
>
>2. Does anyone have a sample of a config file for a changer, more
>preferably a Qualstar changer, and if I'm lucky enough that someone
> else has the 5433, that'd be excellent. :-)  But I'm a newbie to
> this all (controlling SCSI tape devices from linux AND tape
> changers AND amanda...if only one was new, I wouldn't feel as
> overwhelmed as I do at present).  I'm working my way through the
> install doc and the tape.changer doc, but still feeling a bit
> fuzzy/unsure, so a sample config or two would be excellent.
>
>Thanks!
>
>-Fran

One normally starts amtapetype with an argument, given with the -e 
option I believe, of the expected size of the tape.  By doing this, 
the 2 pass things is sped up considerably because amanda can write 
blindly at full speed to a point near this capacity.  Then it can go 
into the write a block, check for eot, write a block, check for eot 
routine.   The reason it does two passes is so that the difference in 
capacity when using two widely differing block sizes give an answer 
that translates into the size a filemark occupies for this tape and 
format.


You might be time ahead in the long run to stop this run, rewind the 
tape, and restart it with the estimate value set at its un-compressed 
rated capacity -5% or so.
-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP@1400mhz  512M
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Copyright 2003 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.